After years of angst over whether to extend Route 53 north into Lake County, the Illinois tollway moved with dizzying speed last week approving a $25 million study of the project. But while the board's vote took seconds, there were hours of fraught testimony from environmentalists fearful of pollution, residents worried about losing their homes, commuters sick of sitting in traffic and construction industry representatives lobbying for jobs. Here are five take-aways from a momentous week: 1. Promising to pay for the extension could be a game-changer. Unlike his predecessors, Chairman Bob Schillerstrom pledged that if Route 53 is extended,...

John Kerry has defended Barack Obama´s decision to stay in Cuba and stick to his diplomatic schedule after the Brussels attacks. The Secretary of State addressed the issue on CBS´s Face The Nation on Saturday. Host John Dickerson asked Kerry how he would respond to those who criticized Obama for attending a baseball game in Cuba on the day of the attacks and dancing the tango in Argentina the following day. Kerry responded by quoting conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, saying the President´s schedule was ´not set by terrorists´. The President of the US has major diplomatic responsibilities,´ Kerry said. ´He

Some parents are preparing to transition their children from one gender to the other as early as pre-school. National Public Radio interviews one Oakland, Calif. family with a young child who started life out as “Jack” but became “Jackie” by age four.

The United States has not yet made a decision on what actions it will take regarding a UN resolution being worked on by France that would set a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on Monday. Harf was asked in her daily briefing about comments made by Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in an interview with The Washington Post. In that interview, Hamdallah said the French resolution was drafted in coordination with the United States, hinting Washington would not veto such a resolution. “We’ve made no decisions with respect...

Exactly a year ago, May 2014, we shared the predictable factual activities, specific tripwires, which outline a specific path to a very specific destination. Here’s an update: P2106: Florida GOP decided today that the March 15 presidential primary will be "winner take all" for the 99 delegates at stake. — Politics1.com (@Politics1com) May 17, 2015 Any questions? Team Jeb’s path is brutally obvious to those willing to accept it. Intellectual honesty is required in order to accept what each of the tripwires represent. Here it is again, as written previously:

Jurors have reached a decision in the penalty phase of the Boston Marathon bombing trial. The jury was tasked with deciding whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be sentenced to life in prison or death for his role in killing four people and wounding hundreds more. Court was to convene at 3 p.m. for the reading of the verdict. Get complete coverage of the Tsarnaev decision on CNN TV, CNN.com and CNN Mobile.

The United States' UN Ambassador, Samantha Power, said Wednesday that Washington is “deeply concerned” by Israel's decision to turn 4,000 dunams of land in the Etzion Bloc region into state land. The US “position on settlement activity is very well known,” she told reporters. “We have long made clear our opposition to settlement activity. We’re deeply concerned by the reports of expanded settlement activity over the last few days, and we call on the Government of Israel to reverse its decision. I think that these actions are contrary to Israel’s stated goal of achieving permanent status agreement with the Palestinians.”

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the decision to strike a deal with the Taliban for the release of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was unanimous in the White House as it was believed that the soldier's life was "in peril". Bergdahl was handed over to U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan on Saturday after five years in captivity in exchange for the transfer of five senior Taliban members from Guantanamo prison in Cuba to Qatar. It provoked criticism from some lawmakers in Congress who were angry that U.S. President Barack Obama's administration had not alerted them in advance,...

If you’re arrested, can police search through your cell phone without first obtaining a warrant? Unfortunately, the law regarding cell phones searches has been unclear especially in the rise of smart phones. The Supreme Court heard two cases today about whether the police need warrants to search detainee’s mobile phones. Both of these cases, Riley v. California and United States v. Wurie, involve suspects getting charged for additional crimes after the police found evidence on their cell phones after their arrest. The lower courts have been torn on the privacy issue. This case should have huge implications as 12 million...

Facing the Palestinians’ continued defiance of the very notion of peaceful coexistence with Israel, Kerry is planning to present his own peace deal next month and try to force Israel to accept it. There was a ghoulish creepiness to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Israel last week. Here we were, beset by the greatest winter storm in a hundred years. All roads to Jerusalem were sealed off. Tens of thousands of Jerusalemites and residents of surrounding areas were locked down in their houses, without power, heat, telephone service or water. And all of the sudden, out of...

There was widespread confusion following the announcement of Istanbul's victory over Madrid to decide the first round of voting here in the race to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games as many presumed that Istanbul had won, not the first round, but the whole competition. Istanbul defeated Madrid in an elimination decider after the pair had initially tied behind first round winners Tokyo But, as Madrid's fate was sealed, a huge chant of "Istanbul, Istanbul" erupted around the media room as a large Turkish press contingent celebrated what they believed to be the countries first victory at the fifth...

America is like a train going rapidly toward a cliff. The election of 2012 may determine if we fly off the precipice, or slow down enough to get the train turned around. (snip) So then, who should we vote for this November? In regards to the upcoming presidential election, I have heard some Christians say they will not vote for Barack Obama since he clearly supports and promotes issues contrary to the Bible, like abortion and homosexual marriage. But, they say, they cannot vote for Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon, and they point out the unbiblical doctrines of...

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday that Israel will soon need to reach decisions regarding Iran. Speaking during a graduation ceremony at the National Security College, Barak said, “The State of Israel is facing some of the most complex challenges which its security and political leadership has ever had to face. “We may be required to make difficult decisions concerning the national security of Israel and ensuring its future,” he said. ... .....

How can Americans who are opposed to the Supreme Court’s ObamaCare decision vent their anger? Get an Obama-ectomy or sponsor one for someone else. A Los Angeles film maker is offering the “Obama-ectomy Screening Package” allowing ordinary citizens to screen his anti-ObamaCare movie “SICK AND SICKER” in their city and make money doing it. Getting an Obama-ectomy or sponsoring one doesn’t require a trip to the hospital. It’s automated through the movie's website at http://www.sickandsickermovie.com The producer, Logan Darrow Clements, last made headlines when he tried to seize the home of Supreme Court Justice David Souter in response to Souter’s...

It looks to me that there are some sweet lemons for conservatives in the ObamaCare decision. Before we burn the chief justice in effigy, let's read the decision and think about the implications. First of all, upholding ObamaCare is going to energize opposition to Obama, and the determination to elect a Congress that can repeal and replace it. Just a day ago, the MSM was telling us it would be a plus for Obama if the act were held unconstitutional because it would take the issue off the table and weaken his opposition. On the other hand, as Rick Moran...

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reacted with "anger, shock and disbelief" at a decision by a Rome judge to fine an Italian journalist who had the courage to speak out against an anti-Semitic cartoon. In a ruling last week, Judge Emanuela Attura ordered journalist Peppino Caldarola to pay a fine of 25,000 euros for slandering extreme-leftist writer Vauro Senesi, whose caricature of Italian Jewish politician Fiamma Nirenstein was published in 2008 in the communist newspaper Il Manifesto and has been widely condemned as anti-Semitic. The cartoon, titled "Fiamma Frankenstein," depicted the Italian Jewish candidate for parliament as monster-like, with a hook-nose,...

The Washington Post uncovers more White House e-mails regarding the Solyndra loan scandal, and it’s not pretty: The Obama White House tried to rush federal reviewers for a decision on a nearly half-billion-dollar loan to the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra so Vice President Biden could announce the approval at a September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s new factory, newly obtained e-mails show… The August 2009 e-mails, released toThe Washington Post, show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--It is time for the Southern Baptist Convention to move from denial to decision. It has happened again. The SBC reported membership has declined, again. And, baptisms are at their lowest level in 60 years. I remember the first time the membership declined, just a few years ago. I pointed out (based on data from LifeWay's now-retired statistician Cliff Tharp) that it was not an aberration, but a pattern. The 50-year membership trend was moving into negative territory. "Put simply," I wrote in light of 2007 data, "membership may go up next year, but the trend points to...

A federal judge has reversed course and will now not restrict James O’Keefe from traveling to attend a conservative conference in California he told me on the radio recently in a story that has garnered national attention. “Rick I will give you the breaking news story”, he said. “I will be joining you in California on June 10th for the Eagle Forum Conference. I have a very good lawyer named Michael Maddigan. The judge has granted my request for work purposes. My mission is a good mission (referring to his non-profit called Project Veritas). There’s a lot of people we’re...